Current Events

I have my power back on. It is nice that when I am ‘sun challenged’ that I can grab some power from the utility. My options with them are that I can manually trigger a power infusion to charge the batteries. Also, if the batteries get too low, the system can use utility power to run the house until the solar panels start charging the batteries on their own. I also can run the generator in case the sun and the utility can’t help.

I got the tractor fuel shutoff solenoid installed and the tractor sprang to life. I moved it to the top of the property where the tire guy could install the new back tires. That requires a hydraulic jack of sorts to lifting the tractor up as the tires are very large. I can change front tires on my own as a) they are small and b) I can just set the front end loader bucket on the ground and give it a little push of the lever and it pushes the tractor front end up off the ground, thus letting the tires spin freely. Just so you know, those t big tires, including the guys travel time, mounting them, taking the old ones way cost just under $2,000.

I got about 10 minutes of cutting and tree trunk moving done when I noticed that I had a steering line leak. Naturally the local John Deere franchise dealer didn’t have the parts in state and would have to overnight (well a couple nights) at a high cost. Amazon and Ebay were of no help to get the hoses here quickly. My friend suggested going to a hydraulic guy and see if he could make them for me. It was a great idea and I drove to town with the broken ones. I entered the place and the guy behind the counter took them and 5 minutes later I had 2 new ones that I believe he must have created in the back room. It was cheaper than the tractor dealer whose entrance is  door away for this guy 🙂

I replaced the hoses and found that it was not steering and lifting properly and the fluid level was low. I had some hydraulic fluid and started adding it when I noticed the fluid did not look clean. There might have been some intrusion in the can so I got a 5 gallon container from town and will drain and replace it. I have all new filters that I just received but have not yet put on. Now I have a reason I guess.

I am cutting my coffee area because I will be having holes punched on my farm for coffee trees and on an a nearby farm for lots of fruit trees. I need my tractor over on the other farm to move dirt and trees to their positions too.

Tomorrow I head up county to help a friend and that will be an all day trip.

For the time being I won’t have time to do tours at the Painted Church. They are fixing the front porch because of some earthquake damage and visitors have to enter the church from behind the altar.

I want to have the phone company install fiber internet which is cheaper and allows for fast uploads which I need for my systems. I have to spend time on the phone with them because my access pole for the farm is not in their system and my landline has been disconnected for probably 10 or more years. At least they may be able to find my location, except my house number has changes since the supplied me with service.